Medscape Cookie Policy

WebMD LLC (“WebMD,” “we” or “us”) and our partners use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect information about your use of the websites and mobile applications that comprise the Medscape Network, including medscape.com, medscape.org and the mobile applications, Medscape Mobile, Medscape MedPulse and Medscape CME & Education, and the associated services which include email communications (collectively, the “Services”).

“Cookies” are small data files that a website places on your browser when you visit the website. Cookies allow a website or third party to recognize your browser. There are three primary types of cookies:

Session cookies are specific to a particular visit and carry information as you view different pages within a website. Session cookies expire and delete themselves automatically in a short period of time, e.g., when you leave the website or when you close your browser.

Persistent cookies enable us to recognize you when you visit our website and remember your preferences. Persistent cookies are stored on your browser or mobile device until you choose to delete them, and otherwise typically delete themselves at expiration.

Third-party cookies are placed by someone other than us, and may gather browsing activity across multiple websites and sessions. They are usually persistent cookies and are stored until you delete them or they expire based on the time period set in each third-party cookie.

“Web beacons” are small graphic files (sometimes called “clear GIFs” or “web pixels”) that are embedded in images on pages of a website or in an email and are typically used to track a user’s activity on the page or whether an email was opened. The beacon sends back to the home server (which can belong to the host site, a network advertiser or some other third party) information from your browser, such as the IP address, the URL of the page on which the beacon is located and the content viewed, the type of browser that is accessing the site and the ID number of any cookies on your computer previously placed by that server.

“Application SDKs” are mobile application third-party software development kits that are embedded in mobile applications. These app SDKs permit the collection of information about the app itself, activity in the app, and the device the application is running on.

The cookies used in connection with your use of the Services will generally fall within one of the following categories:

Necessary functionality: These cookies are essential to enable you to navigate the Medscape Network properties and access the Services in a safe and secure manner.

Important functionality: These cookies help us authenticate registered members, remember your profession, specialty, preferences and content interests so that we can provide an enhanced and more personalized user experience.

Performance and Analytics: These cookies provide data on how the Services are functioning to help us improve the performance of the Services and the user experience.

Advertising/Marketing Services: These cookies enable us and our advertising partners to deliver advertisements within the Medscape Network and on third party sites that are more relevant to you and your interests based on your member registration information, content browsing activity, use of the Services and in some cases, other information about you that we or our advertisers have obtained from other sources. Cookies may be used to limit the number of times you see a particular advertisement and to measure of the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.

We may use cookies and other tracking technologies to recognize individual users when they access the Services, remember user preferences, keep track of users’ access to and use of the Services, track whether our emails opened and whether links are clicked, ensure that the Services are functioning properly, analyze trends and to personalize the Services, including advertising within the Medscape Network and on third party websites, so that it is relevant to individual user’s interests which may be inferred based on profession, specialty, location, prior activity within the Medscape Network and also other information that we or our partners may have about our users.

When you use the Services, we may collect information about your device including the IP address (which provides non-precise information, e.g., city or zip code level, about the approximate physical location of the device), unique device identifier (which is different than the device’s serial number), cookie information, advertising ID (which is a unique, user-resettable identification number for advertising associated with a mobile device), browser information (including referring URL), operating system, mobile carrier, device settings and App version and usage information, all of which we may associate with information about your use of the Services. When enabled by you, we collect precise location information provided by your mobile device, which you may disable through the device settings. If you are a member of the Medscape Network, we may elect to associate the information collected by cookies and other tracking technologies with your registration information and other information we have about you.

We may personalize the Services, including the advertising you see within the Medscape Network, on third party websites and in our email communications, based on your registration information, information collected about your use of the Services and information we receive from third party sources. For example, a user who WebMD believes is a cardiologist or who has browsed cardiology content with the Medscape Network may be served an advertisement promoting a particular cardiac product within the Medscape Network, on third party websites and/or within an email that a user who WebMD believes is a neurologist or has not browsed cardiology content will not see. We partner with third parties to manage and conduct our advertising activities including advertising on third party websites. These third parties may use cookies and other tracking technologies to deliver this advertising based on your activities and interests as inferred from your use of the Services and other information they have about you. Two of the third parties that WebMD works with are Google and Facebook. In addition to using the information it collects performing services for WebMD, Google may also use such information as described in its privacy policy. To see how Google may use information collected through our use of the Google services on the Medscape Network visit https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. While Facebook does not provide any personal information to WebMD, Facebook may use information that it has about you and that it collects performing services for WebMD (which may be associated with personal information that Facebook has about you) as described in its privacy policy available at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy. Also, advertisers may use their own cookies and other tracking technologies in the advertisements served to you through the Services.

Your Choices

Most browser software can be set to reject all cookies, including third party cookies, however, if you choose to reject our cookies, your ability to access and use the Services will be limited. Typically the cookie settings are within the “options” or “preferences” menu in your browser. The links below provide information about cookie settings for some commonly used browsers:

You can opt-out of interest-based advertising on the Sites by rejecting cookies and through preferences manager or, if you are located in the European Union (EU), you may also opt-out here. Please note that even if you reject cookies and opt-out of interest-based advertising, you will continue to receive generic advertisements through the Services. Note that the Sites do not respond to web browser “do not track” signals. You can learn more about managing your preferences for ads online, particularly for many third-party advertising networks, through resources made available by the Digital Advertising Alliance at https://www.aboutads.info/ or the Network Advertising Initiative at https://optout.networkadvertising.org. Note that if you delete cookies, use a different device, or change web browsers, you may need to opt out again.

You may control interest-based advertising on your mobile device by enabling the “Limit Ad Tracking” setting in your iOS device’s settings or “Opt out of Ads Personalization” in your Android device’s settings. This will not prevent you from seeing advertisements, but will limit the use of device advertising identifiers to personalize ads based on your interests. You also may disable the transmission of precise location information through your device settings.

We reserve the right to change this Cookie Policy at any time and any changes will be effective upon posting unless we advise otherwise. We encourage you to periodically review this Cookie Policy for current information about our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.